http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/writ...28/bulls/1.html

When Dirk and LeBron are FA?

And Wade and Mello !!!!

The way they have played this past month... thats kind of the way I'm leaning...

I'd like to see them start locking up this young core long term...


and they will be conteding for years to come.

PLay for today. Odds are those guys won't make it to free agency and the Bulls will be caught with their pants down.

i wouldnt consider it catching the Bulls with their pants down if none of those guys make it to FA and the Bulls have money to spend. I think the Bulls will be in a good financial situation and will be rewarded for it regardless if Dirk and Lebron are there or not.

If they hold onto cap room for 3 seasons, looking for the next thing, I definately consider that being caught with your pants down.

I don't see much in free agency, but I really think the Bulls will make a deal for someone with a contract.

Wade Mello and the gang will all resign without a doubt in my mind. I would stay put anyways we have a good young team that just needs a big player to fill in center or PF.

Carmelo is the one player I could see leaving, but I don't think it will be through FA, I would imagine the Nuggets will try to work on a trade first so that they don't lose him for nothing.

How quickly people forget that we must sign our guys to extensions like Hinrich, plus you have to factor in raises and draft picks which cost money. We'll probably be right at the cap unless the Bulls trade some guys for expiring deals.

Realistically, we won't be able to sign a marquee FA. We'll probably have enough to afford the MLE and LLE without paying a luxury tax. bulls6 from RealGM could explain the cap situation better(he knows all that stuff), but basically we won't be able to get any of those guys without doing a sign and trade.

i want to stay put as well, AS LONG AS staying put means keeping everything the same except our big man situation

This series has changed my mind in that i see no way that gordon and noc can not be starters next year. MAYBE if deng started over noc and he still got a lot of mins, but either way all three need to play a prominent role next year along with Hinrich.

BY THE WAY when did hinrich become a star? He's always been solid, but he is owning this series. While having the toughest defensive assignment in the current NBA era, he is managing to dominate the offense between setting up shots for gordon and noc and deng and shooting lights out all along.

The only question i have for this team is:

Why have we played the last 20 games (14-4 including playoffs) at such a higher level than the first 82 games?

NEXT year,
pg-hinrich, duhon, 2nd round draft pick (....or pargo)
sg-gordon, deng, 2nd first round pick?
sf, noc, deng
pf-Alrdidge, hopefully, or TRADE BOTH 1ST ROUND PICKS FOR BEST BIG MAN YOU CAN GET(garnett, jOneal, ???) Malik Allen, Songalia
C-Mohammed, Chandler

Bulls win 50 games next year, and a very good playoff showing

I want the Bulls to atleast be players for Harrington/Gooden. But if they are 2 expensive I have no problem staying put. Can someone post a list of f/a's.

One guy I dont want is Peja.

I say we forget about signing players from 07, and just develop the players we have... We'll get our good future pf for the future throuh the draft, and i say we sign up a guy like Nene, pryz or Nazr.... we would have a nice rotation w/ Chandler, our rook, free Agent..... And I say we keep Malik too... We will need a taller guard, and i say we try to pick up Adrian Griff, or Deshawn Stevenson this year....

here i found a list of good players that will become fa's if they do not sign they look pretty good but not the best.

http://probasketball.about.com/od/newsrumo...reeagents06.htm

If Lebron Wade or Mello are availabe though in 07, Would you go after them? I CERTAINLY WOULD!!

i know that this is getting a little out there but bonzi wells is a tall SG that would work in our system.

look at this there are no big players in there last year of there contract on the bulls they are mostly 2&3 bench players like schencher, pargo( has to go has no D) and others. go to http://realgm.com/index.php then trade checker pick chicago and another team so you can see the bulls contract stiuation.

We also cut Tim Thomas & paid off his contract, giving us like $14 mil in salary cap space or so.

id stay with our team now, with our improvements coming from the draft this year. so we could have a team like this for the next few years:

PG - Hinrich, Duhon
SG - Rodney Carney, Gordon, Pargo
C- Chandler, maybe a 2007 draft pick
SF - Deng, Nocioni
PF - Lamarcus Aldridge, Sweetney, Harrington

this team could be good for the next 10 years!

Im not sure about Bonzi... i think he would demand some pretty good money and would want to get his minutes... I still want to see Gordon get a lot of minutes next year.... I like his game... but im not 100% sure about his attitude and if he's a "paxson" type of guy.... That being said, i like his game but im not sure if he's the right guy for this team...

No way we would get both Carney and Aldridge unless one of them had a huge drop in value.

I really like the idea of getting Mohammed and will stick to that, Im not too sure about Harrington Im 50/50 on him, hes good but not the prototypical player down in the post we need. We are playing the heat and have found that a guy like shaq needs an able body to guard him. Therefore we should look for a tall player either in FA or the draft.

Bonzi Wells will NEVER play for a Scott Skiles/John Paxon led team. Too many on and off of the court problems. They want guys who are willing to play for the team and keep their noses clean, Wells isn't willing to do either. Scratch him off of the list.

I think that money is already counted for next year as Thomas had an expiring contract and wasn't going to be back anyway.

we definitely dont need to go crazy this summer. No trades, nothing rediculous. Just draft 2 big men and sign a vet low post player. We need to keep money to resign Hinrich, Noch, etc in 2007.

The core of this team is an amazing young group of guys and we just need to continue to develop them and add some low post scoring.

it was just a thought that came to my head.

We also need a tall guard... a guy that can play D....its been ovious all season... And i totaly agree w/ u, lets keep this group together and just add a big in free agency and add w/ our draft picks...

The Bulls straight up do not need any more guards. We already have an excellent backcourt. Our only deficiency is in our frontcourt. All we need is a big man, preferably a 6-11+ 260-pound big man who is a defender. Our offense is coming in nicely from our guards and wings.

John Paxson is going to keep the young circle of Ben Gordon, Kirk Hinrich, Luol Deng, Andres Nocioni, and Chris Duhon for the long-run. These guys will develop their games and will come up big for Chicago.

KEEP OUR YOUNG GUARDS/FORWARDS!!

does anyone have an accurate number of 1. the cap for next yr and 2 what is the bulls salary caps?

with ref to what we have and what will be available. we need to get 1 or 2 big men, draft smart and save our money for 2007.

here is where i am going to get flame

duron is the player i am not seeing in 2007 with 2006 season being the season to tell if we have something in deng and gordon.

wll the bulls make a run at some of the younger stars being available at 2007, yes depending on the above and how we draft this yr.

i am really nervous about the upcoming draft and paxson not taking the right big man

he loves defensive big men, he'll even make some attempt to court ben wallace knowing its a lost cause

i would rather see us package both picks for any offensive big than draft someone who's not going to fit what we already have. No one small, no more projects, no one without an offensive game

i really feel like aldridge is the only big for us in the draft
if we got him, i would look to take obryant with our 2nd pick

do you think, if we don't get the top pick and we felt aldridge wouldnt be there when we picked, we could trade up by giving a team both of our picks. We really only need one piece in the draft and most other teams picking in the top five could use another mid first rounder, as they have more gaps to fill on their roster

if not, who could we get for our pick(s)?
rahim from sacto?
wilcox from seattle?
jermaine oneal, garnett, bosh, are all reaches, but could any of this work?
What other post players exist in this league that are gettable......we could probably get sean may (which i hate saying as someone that goes to UofI) for our 2nd pick and a scrub, and besides aldridge he looks better than all the power forwards in the draft this year
WHO ELSE?

What about trading pargo or pike for a 2nd rounder and getting marco killingsworth or terrance dials.......i know i have a big ten bias, but if we are really looking for someone who's sole purpose is to score down low, that is the talent that both posess

I'll disagree with you there...

The Bulls need a big man with a mid range jumper to stretch the D a little and not allow the defenders to jump the pick and roll while the Bulls are on offense.

I would be so pissed at Paxson if he traded any of our picks for Chris Wilcox or Shareef Abdur Rahim, that is an outright waste of a draft pick. And if you think the bulls can get a second rounder out of Pargo or Pike, you are nuts. Pargo is worth an Nth rounder, meaning he is an UDFA in my mind, not worth a second rounder. There is a reason he bounced around the league, he is small, he shoots too much, and he is extremely streaky.

I personally think the Bulls will improve through the draft this year, and have another year of growing together in 06-07. If a certain starter regresses or gets injured, then the Bulls will know which way to go in free agency in 2007. Too many things can happen in a year to decide which player to target now.

Like I said, once you factor in the pay raises and such, the Bulls simply do not have the cash to get one of those marquee guys. Orlando, however, has set themselves up where they will though.

If we spend this off-season we will have plenty of money to spend.... next off-season is when we have to start resigning some players which will hurt our f/a spending.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but in the NBA, I believe you can go quite far over the soft (Free Agent signing) salary cap if you're resigning players on your own team. We won't have anything more than the mid-level exemption ($5 mil?) to offer to Free Agents after we start having to sign Hinrich, Deng, Gordon, and Noc, but if we're willing to pay the luxury tax on the guys, I don't think the cap is a problem in keeping our own people if we want to.

You are exactly right. Look at the Knicks for example...

You can make any deal as long as you are resigning your own free agents or the monetary amount in the deals is within 10% of each other.